Zach

Luke 19 

1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Tax collectors who were Jews were some of the most hated people. They collaborated with the Romans & they gouged their fellow Jews by collecting far more than whatever tax was deemed by the Romans.

Tac collectors were considered "notorious sinners" & were deemed "unclean" by their fellow Jews, who shunned them & hated them.

The interesting thing to me about this incident is that Jesus let Zacchaeus know that He, Jesus, knew who Zacchaeus was but never mentioned it. Jesus went to Zacchaeus' house for a meal. And remarkably, after Zacchaeus had been around Jesus & realized that even thought Jesus knew who & what Zacchaeus was, Jesus cared about him & loved him where Zacchaeus was in his life.

And that kind of connection had a stupendous effect on Zachaeus, as we've just read.

I wonder how many "notorious sinners" that each of us know would respond in the same way Zacchaeus did if we, who claim to have Jesus living inside us, were to show the same kind of non-judgmental care & love toward them that Jesus showed to Zacchaeus...